Benjamin Franklin Part 10

[Footnote i-216: Although both Franklin and Smith held to the labor theory of value (Franklin was indebted to Petty for his use of the term), Smith was confirmed in his belief before he knew of Franklin or his works.]

[Footnote i-217: According to Jacob Viner ("Adam Smith and Laissez Faire," in _Adam Smith, 1776-1926. Lectures to Commemorate the Sesqui-Centennial of the Publication of 'The Wealth of Nations_,'

116-55), "Smith's major claim to fame ... seems to rest on his elaborate and detailed application to the economic world of the concept of a unified natural order, operating according to natural law, and if left to its own course producing results beneficial to mankind" (p. 118), which suggests, especially in _Theory of Moral Sentiments_, that self-love and social are the same. When Smith came to write the _Wealth of Nations_, he tended, Viner a.s.serts, to distrust the operations of the harmonious natural order--yet Viner admits that many pa.s.sages tend to corroborate his earlier view expressed in _Theory of Moral Sentiments_ and that "There is no possible room for doubt that Smith in general believed that there was, to say the least, a stronger presumption against government activity beyond its fundamental duties of protection against its foreign foes and maintenance of justice" (p. 140). We shall see elsewhere that Franklin seems to have urged a less frugal governmental restraint in activities other than economic.]

[Footnote i-218: _The Colonial Mind_, 173. It is generally thought that _Principles of Trade_ is "partly" Franklin's "own composition" (Carey, _op. cit._, 161).]

[Footnote i-219: Philadelphia, Sept. 13, 1775: MS letter (unpublished) in W. S. Mason Collection.]

[Footnote i-220: London, Sept. 29, 1769: MS letter (unpublished) in W.

S. Mason Collection.]

[Footnote i-221: London, Feb. 20, 1768 (_Writings_, V, 102).]

[Footnote i-222: Dated April 4, 1769 (_ibid._, V, 200-2).]

[Footnote i-223: _Writings_, V, 202.]

[Footnote i-224: Cited by F. W. Garrison in "Franklin and the Physiocrats," _Freeman_, VIII, 154-6 (Oct. 24, 1923).]

[Footnote i-225: Dupont de Nemours's opinion of Franklin (_Writings_, V, 153-4).]

[Footnote i-226: _Writings_, V, 156. See W. Steell's entertaining "The First Visit to Paris," in _Benjamin Franklin of Paris_, 3-21; also E. E.

Hale and E. E. Hale, Jr., _Franklin in France_, I, 7-13.]

[Footnote i-227: C. Gide and C. Rist, _A History of Economic Doctrines_, 4 note.]

[Footnote i-228: _Writings_, V, 155.]

[Footnote i-229: As an _experimental_ agriculturist Franklin has been given too little honor. He performed many valuable services in introducing Old-World plants, trees, and fruits to the New, and in encouraging others to carry on practical botanical experiments.

Particularly from 1747 to 1757 he experimented in agriculture and was in constant communication with that pioneer scientific husbandman, Jared Eliot. See E. D. Ross's "Benjamin Franklin as an Eighteenth-Century Agriculture Leader," _Journal of Political Economy_, x.x.xVII, 52-72 (Feb., 1929).]

[Footnote i-230: Although no scholarly subst.i.tute for the works of Quesnay, Mirabeau, Mercier de la Riviere, Dupont de Nemours, Le Trosne, Abbe Bandeau, Abbe Roubaud, and some pieces of the occasional physiocrat Turgot, the following will enable the student to derive adequately for general purposes the thought of the economistes: H. Higgs, _The Physiocrats_ (1897); Gide and Rist, op. cit.; L. H. Haney, _History of Economic Thought_ (1911), 133-57; G. Weulersse, _Le mouvement physiocratique en France (de 1756 a 1770)_; A. Smith, _Wealth of Nations_, Bk. IV, chap. IX; J. Bonar, _Philosophy and Political Science_ (1893); in addition see critical and interpretative writings of Oncken, Stem, Kines, Hasbach, Sch.e.l.le, Bauer, Feilbogen, De Lavergne.]

[Footnote i-231: An integral idea of the French school was its advocacy of the _impot unique_--a single tax on land. It is difficult to find evidence to controvert Mr. Carey's a.s.sertion that Franklin seems never to have advocated this tax (_op. cit._, 154). However, in marginalia on a pamphlet by Allan Ramsay, Franklin held: "Taxes must be paid out of the Produce of the Land. There is no other possible Fund" (cited by Carey, 155). Another reference is found in a letter of 1787 to Alexander Small: "Our Legislators are all Land-holders; and they are not yet persuaded, that all taxes are finally paid by the Land" (_Writings_, IX, 615). It is probable that he felt that a land tax would be dubiously effective in view of the difficulties of collection in spa.r.s.e settlements.]

[Footnote i-232: _Writings_, II, 313 (July 16, 1747). See also _Note Respecting Trade and Manufactures_, London, July 7, 1767 (Sparks, II, 366):

"Suppose a country, X, with three manufactures, as _cloth_, _silk_, _iron_, supplying three other countries. A, B, C, but is desirous of increasing the vent, and raising the price of cloth in favor of her own clothiers.

In order to do this, she forbids the importation of foreign cloth from A.

A, in return, forbids silks from X.

Then the silk-workers complain of a decay of trade.

And X, to content them, forbids silks from B.

B, in return, forbids iron ware from X.

Then the iron-workers complain of decay.

And X forbids the importation of iron from C.

C, in return, forbids cloth from X.

What is got by all these prohibitions?

_Answer._--All four find their common stock of the enjoyments and conveniences of life diminished."]

[Footnote i-233: _Writings_, IV, 469-70.]

[Footnote i-234: _Ibid._, V, 155.]

[Footnote i-235: Pa.s.sy, May 27, 1779 (_Writings_, VII, 332).]

[Footnote i-236: _Ibid._, IV, 242-5 (April 30, 1764). As Mr. Carey notes. Franklin in several places. _On the Labouring Poor_ and in a letter (IX, 240-8), suggests that private vices--demands for luxuries--make public benefits, hence resembling, if not ultimately derived from, Mandeville's _Fable of the Bees_. Franklin's sanction of free trade is, however, ant.i.thetical to Mandeville's 'dog eat dog'

basis. (See Kaye's Intro. to _The Fable of the Bees_, xcviii ff.) Franklin in no uncertain terms looks upon trade restrictions definitely as the result of "the abominable selfishness" of men (VII, 332). As long as selfishness is the rule, mercantilism, not economic laissez faire, will be king. It is theoretically probable also that belief in man's innate altruism could furnish emotional if not logical sanction for laissez faire--but this abstraction is in Franklin's case futile, since like Swift he was not blind to man's malevolence!]

[Footnote i-237: _Writings_, IV, 245; see also _ibid._, VIII, 107-8, 261, 19.]

[Footnote i-238: _Ibid._, IX, 41; also 63, 578, 588.]

[Footnote i-239: Cited in Carey, _op. cit._, 160-1.]

[Footnote i-240: See Gide and Rist, _op. cit._, 7 note.]

[Footnote i-241: _Ibid._, 7 note.]

[Footnote i-242: _Ibid._]

[Footnote i-243: Mercier de la Riviere, cited in _ibid._, 8 note.]

[Footnote i-244: _Ibid._, 9-10.]

[Footnote i-245: "Economics and the Idea of Natural Law," _Quarterly Journal of Economics_, XLIV, 16 (1929). See also O. H. Taylor's valuable dissertation, "The Idea of a 'Natural Order' in Early Modern Economic Thought," summarized in Harvard University _Summaries of Theses_, 1928, 102-6, and available in ma.n.u.script at the Harvard University Library.]

[Footnote i-246: Taylor, "Economics and the Idea of Natural Law," _loc.

cit._, 16.]

[Footnote i-247: Even this fragmentary view of the more obvious economic principles held by Franklin offers convincing evidence that had he been less incidentally an economist he would have been at least a lesser Adam Smith. Mr. Wetzel, in _Benjamin Franklin as an Economist_, offers a convenient summary of Franklin as an economist, some items suggesting aspects of his views which, had s.p.a.ce permitted, we should have included in this study: "1. Money as coin may have a value higher than its bullion value. 2. Natural interest is determined by the rent of so much land as the money loaned will buy. 3. High wages are not inconsistent with a large foreign trade. 4. Population will increase as the means of gaining a living increase. 5. A high standard of living serves to prolong single life, and thus acts as a check upon the increase of population. 6. People are adjusted among the different countries according to the comparative well-being of mankind. 7. The value of an article is determined by the amount of labor necessary to produce the food consumed in making the article. 8. While manufactures are advantageous, only agriculture is truly productive. 9. Manufactures will naturally spring up in a country as the country becomes ripe for them.

10. Free trade with the world will give the greatest return at the least expense. 11. Wherever practicable, State revenue should be raised by direct taxes."]

[Footnote i-248: _Writings_, II, 110.]

[Footnote i-249: _Ibid._, II, 295. In 1736 Franklin wrote: "Faction, if not timely suppressed, may overturn the balance, the palladium of liberty, and crush us under its ruins" (cited in R. G. Gettell, _History of American Political Thought_, 149).]

[Footnote i-250: W. R. Shepherd, _History of Proprietary Government in Pennsylvania_ (New York, 1896), 5.]

[Footnote i-251: _Writings_, II, 351.]